Chapter 865: Circumstances

Gui Bing was overwhelmed. “Who are you?”

Lu Yin frowned. This person was much weaker than Autumnfrost Qing, but he could still compare to a Fifth Mainland cultivator who was in the top twenty of the Top 100 Rankings. If the various suppression were taken into consideration, then this person could enter the top fifteen at least.

The Sixth Mainland’s overall strength was much higher than the Fifth Mainland’s.

A crack rang out as Lu Yin exerted some more force. Gui Bing’s wrist snapped, and his body was flung away like a rag doll. He gritted his teeth tightly as beads of sweat dotted his forehead.

The young master was shocked. This powerhouse who he could not even hope to defeat was being trampled on before his eyes. This was inconceivable.

The innate suppression that the Sixth Mainland cultivators had on the Fifth Mainland cultivators had no effect on Lu Yin, and neither the imprint nor the martial print were enough to bridge the huge disparity between the two youths. For Lu Yin, only someone like Autumnfrost Qing, who was a direct descendant of a World Imprinter's family, could make the battle a little bit more interesting. Others were not enough to even allow him to warm up.

“Do you know who I am? My master is the Tong family’s Granny Gui! An Imprinter! Your entire Fifth Mainland doesn’t have many powerhouses at her level. Do you still dare to kill me?” Gui Bing threatened, his voice sharp.

Lu Yin arrogantly replied, “Sorry, but even if your master was before me, I’d still kill her if it came down to it.”

He then saw that Gui Bing was trying to grab something from his cosmic ring, so Lu Yin exerted some strength through his arm and decisively shattered Gui Bing’s heart.

Gui Bing had not expected Lu Yin to be so decisive, and his eyes went dull with regret. His vitality had completely drained away.

That young master watched on, dumbfounded. This person was efficient, ruthless, and incredibly powerful. However, he had not met this person before.

He tried hard to recall all of the Title Holders that he had heard of, but there was no such person among them. Could this person be someone who looked young but was actually from the older generation?

The Champions' Stage only granted titles to members of the younger generation. Although those of the older generations also received rewards for their contributions, they were not granted any titles. After all, many powerhouses from the older generation had power levels that surpassed 200,000 and had to fight while suppressing their power level. Thus, they could not correctly be evaluated within the current environment of the Innerverse. Hence, the Champions' Stage only granted titles to members of the younger generation.

With practiced movements, Lu Yin used Gui Bing’s blood to unlock his cosmic ring and flip through its contents. His eyes lit up, as he had found quite a lot of good things within it. Lu Yin immediately knew what this person had wanted to take out, which was a specific needle. This needle was different from the others that the youth had used, and this needle’s rune lines had reached the same as an attack with a power level of 200,000, which was the highest amount of strength that could be used in the Innerverse.

The youth had wanted to use this needle to sneak attack Lu Yin, but unfortunately for him, Lu Yin had been the one to come out on top.

Aside from the needle, the cosmic ring also contained many other items, and there were even close to 20,000 star essence inside. For a Cruiser, 20,000 star essence was quite a decent sum.

The young master swallowed his saliva as he watched Lu Yin casually pocket the spoils of his battle. “Junior Alfonso from Starphant Mountain pays his respects to Senior.”

Lu Yin suddenly realized why this person looked so familiar. Back during the trial on Shenwu Continent, at the Tower of Resonating Light, Lu Yin had forced a bunch of trial takers to sign contracts promising a favor to him. After he had returned to the Great Yu Empire, he had used the favor from this Alfonso to help pressure the Ross Empire into withdrawing their troops from the Great Yu Empire.

“Starphant Mountain? From Chaos Flowzone?” Lu Yin asked.

“Senior has heard of my Starphant Mountain?” Alfonso’s eyes lit up, and his voice betrayed his expectations.

Lu Yin grunted in acknowledgement. “Kind of. So why are you in such a miserable situation?”

Alfonso miserably answered, “Junior was too careless and was discovered by people from the Sixth Mainland. I even ended up dragging the elders in my sect into the issue. If not for Senior intervening, Junior would have died.”

Lu Yin feigned ignorance and asked in a curious tone, “What Sixth Mainland?”

Alfonso was stumped. "Senior doesn’t know about the Sixth Mainland?”

Lu Yin shook his head.

Behind, Hai Qiqi pursed her lips and rolled her eyes in contempt.

“I’ve been in seclusion for a hundred years and only just came out,” Lu Yin explained.

Alfonso was puzzled. Seclusion for a hundred years?

The Martial Progenitor had attacked the Innerverse more than a year ago in a universe-shaking battle. However, were there actually people who had managed to remain in seclusion through that monumental event? Although Alfonso did not quite believe Lu Yin, this person had saved his life and killed the disciple of one of the Sixth Mainland’s Imprinters in the process. Thus, he was definitely a part of the Fifth Mainland.

“Since Senior doesn’t know about the current circumstances, then Junior will give you a brief introduction.” Alfonso then used half an hour to explain the current situation of the Innerverse to the best of his knowledge.

Lu Yin thus learned that the Innerverse’s situation was even worse than what he had thought.

The Sixth Mainland’s invasion had rolled over the Starfall Sea without any substantial resistance. Then, they had torn apart the Astral River’s energy isolating the neighboring flowzone before slaughtering their way into the Chaos Flowzone.

The experts from the various great powers of the Innerverse had been drafted by the Hall of Honor to defend against the Sixth Mainland’s invasion. However, their efforts were useless. The Sixth Mainland had steadily advanced and covered the entire Innerverse step by step. Only when the experts from the Cosmic Sea and the Neoverse had joined in, along with other hidden powerhouses from various organizations, was the Fifth Mainland able to finally stall the invader’s momentum. The war had been troubling, but then, the Sixth Mainland’s Martial Progenitor had finally fought against the remnant spiritual force of one of the Fifth Mainland’s Progenitors.

Even though the Progenitors’ battle had caused the Innerverse’s energy to surge and transform its environment into one that did not allow anyone’s attacks to exceed a power level of 200,000, the Sixth Mainland had an unending supply of cultivators with power levels below 200,000. Within the younger generation, the Daosource Three Skies and the Realmlings were all top-tier elites, and right behind them were the heirs to the Cosmic Imprinter families, World Imprinter families, and Imprinter families. Disregarding the younger generation, the Sixth Mainland also had numerous Enlighters. Even when these powerhouses suppressed their power level to beneath 200,000, the battle strength that they were capable of unleashing was more terrifying than the younger generation’s capabilities. After all, these suppressed powerhouses were still existences who surpassed the Fifth Mainland Enlighters.

For example, the Enlighter from Starphant Mountain who had been escorting Alfonso had been severely injured by an Enlighter from the Sixth Mainland.

Occasionally, the Sixth Mainland would have an Imprinter or even a World Imprinter attack. Even when they suppressed their power level to below 200,000, the might that they were capable of displaying was terrifying, and it was not something that the average person could imagine.

Even though the war in the Innerverse had devolved into complete chaos, the Innerverse was still slowly and surely being taken over by the Sixth Mainland. The Starfall Sea, Chaos Flowzone, Zhengyang Flowzone, Soulseal Flowzone, and many more territories had all completely fallen under the control of the Sixth Mainland. The majority of the Innerverse had been completely occupied by the Sixth Mainland’s forces, and quite a few Innerverse cultivators could do nothing besides hide. Once they were discovered, they were either killed or captured. In the latter case, they were treated as if they were the worst kind of trash.

Even more terrifying was the fact that the surging energy had not enveloped the entire universe; its effects were limited only to the Innerverse and half of the Cosmic Sea. The other half of the Cosmic Sea had not been covered by this suppressive energy. As a result, the Sixth Mainland had assembled its most elite forces to invade the Cosmic Sea and reach the Neoverse. If that invasion succeeded, then their top experts would no longer be suppressed by the boiling energy, and they would be able to unleash their full might. At that time, the entire Fifth Mainland would become the Sixth Mainland’s territory.

The Ten Arbiters and many other powerhouses from the Innerverse had all gone to the Cosmic Sea to try to hold back the Sixth Mainland.

Lu Yin deeply contemplated this new information. He had originally thought that the Innerverse’s circumstances would be slightly better, especially after hearing the Yu family elder’s words and witnessing Yuan Shi’s strength. However, it suddenly seemed that he had been too optimistic. According to what Alfonso had said, the Innerverse had been suppressed from beginning to end.

“The Title Holders who’ve gained titles from the Champions' Stage are all very powerful, but there are a lot more powerhouses from the Sixth Mainland,” Alfonso admitted bleakly. They had never imagined that the Innerverse would one day be successfully invaded.

Lu Yin’s eyes narrowed. Unless a Progenitor acted once again, the Innerverse, Cosmic Sea, and Neoverse seemed to all be doomed.

𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

“How’s the situation in the Cosmic Sea?” Lu Yin could not help but ask. He was a bit worried about Leon’s Armada.

Alfonso shook his head. “I don't know, as all of the information I have is from half a year ago that I’ve updated with scattered bits of updates. Additionally, it’s hard to tell the truth from fake news.”

Hai Qiqi pursed her lips. “But you still said all that like it’s true.”

Lu Yin wanted to beat Alfonso up, as he had nearly been driven to extreme desperation.

Alfonso felt wronged. “Saying that we’re unable to verify the truthfulness of this information is just to comfort ourselves. Right now, everything around us is under the control of the Sixth Mainland. All of the busier planets have statues of the Sixth Mainland’s Imprinters, and they force everyone there to kneel and worship them. It’s the same situation wherever you go, and the overall status of the Innerverse might be even worse than what I’ve described.”

Lu Yin’s eyes turned cold. The Sixth Mainland was forcing the Innerverse’s cultivators to kneel down and worship the Imprinter statues to break their dignity and leave a stain that they would be forced to bear for the rest of their lives. With a single kowtow, their cultivation heart would be disrupted, and as time passed, some people may even start wholeheartedly worshipping these Imprinters. Such vicious methods.

This was how the invaders were trying to enslave the Fifth Mainland.

“Just now, you mentioned that the Starfall Sea has also fallen into the Sixth Mainland’s hands. In that case, what about the Sea King's Dome?” Hai Qiqi suddenly thought of this and asked in a rather desperate tone.

Alfonso shook his head. “I don't know the details, but the Starfall Sea was the first place that the Sixth Mainland attacked when they invaded the Innerverse. They refer to the Starfall Sea as the Mara River, and it’s said that the Starfall Sea has fallen into the hands of the Grand Martial Realm’s Tong family. That family is a Cosmic Imprinter family, and they have multiple Imprinters among their ranks. Right now, nobody even dares to go to the Starfall Sea, as that would just be courting death. Ah right, that man from before was the disciple of the Tong family’s Imprinter, Granny Gui. He was called Gui Bing.”

“We want to head to the Starfall Sea. Do you know of any way to get there?” Lu Yin asked.

Alfonso was placed in a difficult position. “That… Senior, you really can’t go to the Starfall Sea right now. The Tong family’s power is overwhelming. Reportedly, even the Grand Martial Realm’s Realmling is in the Starfall Sea. With that said, let’s head somewhere else.”

“To the Starfall Sea!” Hai Qiqi barked.

Alfonso had a bitter expression on his face. “If Senior insists on going to Starfall Sea, then there’s only one way. You must disguise yourself and hide among the captured miners that are headed for the Starfall Sea. From there, it may be possible to evade the Sixth Mainland’s investigation and enter the Starfall Sea. However, that’s really too dangerous a plan, so I beg Senior to please reconsider.”

After saying this, Alfonso bowed deeply. “If Senior does head into the Starfall Sea, could you do a favor for Junior? Starphant Mountain will forever remember your kindness.”

“Why are you acting like this? We even saved you, so don’t be unsatisfied with what you’ve already gotten.” Hai Qiqi was displeased by Alfonso’s attitude, and she was also anxious to head toward the Starfall Sea as soon as she could.

Alfonso thought about her comment and sighed. “True, Junior’s at fault. Junior will not bring it up again, so please do not blame me.”

Lu Yin did not ask any further, as he did not like creating additional trouble for himself. “Do you know where these captured miners are? It would be best if you could take us there.”

Alfonso was again caught in a dilemma. “Junior needs to rescue Astral-3’s people, and there’s no more time. However, Junior can draw up a star chart for Senior. It’s not too far from here.”

Lu Yin’s gaze trembled. “What did you say? Rescue Astral-3’s people?”

Alfonso nodded. “When the Sixth Mainland invaded, Astral-3 was unfortunately right in their path and was destroyed by the Sixth Mainland’s powerhouses. More than half of their students died, though the Headmaster took an Imprinter down with him at the end. The remaining students and mentors were all captured, and they are currently serving out their sentences. Junior was headed there to rescue them, but along the way, I was discovered by Gui Bing.”